Circles Can Now Be Shared & Imported on Google+

Circles on Google+ are meant to be private. Your circles are only visible to you and no one else. That’s great if you have circles like “Frenemies” and “Barely Remember.”

But what about the meaningful ones with interesting and influential people, say “Awesome Photographers” and “Tech Journalists”? Share them of course.

Now you can. Google’s rolled out a feature to make circles sharing a reality. It’s easy really. Just head over to your circles page, click on any circle you wish to share, and click on the “Share” link. You can then optionally write a comment and select who you want to share with. A short description helps — the name you’ve assigned to the circle will remain private.

Once it’s posted to the stream, your audience can add the circle to their own profile with just a click. That click won’t actually import your circle. Instead it create a new circle and imports everyone into it.

What’s the difference? Well, if you’ve followed a list created by someone else on Twitter, Google+ is exactly opposite of that. Circles sharing is a one-off affair. You’re basically grouping people up and letting everyone know they’re awesome. Think #followfriday en masse.

From then on, any changes you make to that circle will only be known to you. Circles imported by your audience won’t be affected. The only downside: There’s a 250 person limit in each shared circle.